As an adjective, "childfree" refers to one who does not have children, does not wish to have them, believes that he or she will never want children, actively plans his or her life so that he or she will not have children, and does not consider his or her life diminished by the absence of children. As a noun, it refers to someone who is childfree or a group of people who are childfree. Another phrase for this idea is "childless by choice" (or "willfully barren" as a friend of mine likes to say), which is used to bring across the idea of childfreedom more easily to those who don't know what it is about; note that someone who is simply "childless" is someone who has no children but does want them, believes that he or she will want them someday, or believes that there is something missing in his or her life that will be alleviated only by the presence of children.

Oddly enough for such a decision, many people consider the intensely personal business of whether an individual wants to reproduce to be appropriate for public discourse. It is generally considered abnormal for an adult to genuinely not wish to have children--this tends to be more true for females rather than males. In fact, an expression of a well-thought-out and long-deliberated decision to not ever have children frequently results in the one expressing this idea being viewed as unnatural and monstrous.

The concept of a person not wanting to have kids, ever, is so alien to many other people that some gross misconceptions about the childfree are made in order to make sense of this new idea. Commonly-held ideas about the childfree are that:

1. they are selfish
2. they are physically or mentally incompetent
3. they are pedophiles
4. they hate children and would act maliciously towards them when given the chance
5. they are homosexuals
6. they are sexually immoral (whatever that means)
7. they will change their minds once they get older or once they actually have a child of their own
8. they have pets only as a substitute for children
9. "the right man" or "the right woman" will change their mind for them

While any of the above can apply to a childfree person, it can apply equally well to one who wants or already has children (yes, even item 5). News stories about children abused and neglected by their own parents come up often enough that it is not even a great stretch to say that items 3 and 4 can occur with equal or greater frequency in the non-childfree population.

As far as the attitudes from the childfree are concerned, some of the most often-encountered reasons for not having children are:

• recognition that, for them, the joys of parenthood will not outweigh the troubles that arise from it
• a desire to maintain financial security
• a desire to be able to spend more time with their chosen romantic or sexual partners
• an aversion to pregnancy
• fear of not being able to be a good parent
• a sense that it would be irresponsible to bring a child into a dangerous world
• belief that it would be irresponsible to have a child that will be another drain on the Earth's resources
• conviction that it is better to regret not having had children than to regret having had them
• simply disliking children

No matter what the reasons are that cause a person to be childfree, the majority of childfree people are not celibate by choice or asexual; many are involved in sexually active relationships. Due to this desire to be sexually active and an equally strong desire to not have children, birth control and abortion issues are of especially great interest to the childfree--even those who identify as homosexual. Many childfree people opt to undergo sterilization in order to bypass the uncertainty that comes with the use of more conventional birth control methods. Finding a doctor who will perform this procedure is a problem in that many doctors simply will not perform a sterilization on someone who is below a certain age (often 25-30 for men and 30-35 for women) and who has fewer than a certain number of biological children (often 2). Needless to say, the latter requirement defeats the purpose of the sterilization procedure for a childfree person.

Depending on the doctor, also, the client may be required to either obtain permission from his or her spouse (perhaps even wait until he or she is married to obtain that permission) in order for the doctor to agree to the procedure, which is insulting because it reduces the client to someone who must have others' permission to make his or her own decisions about his or her body. Paradoxically, other doctors may require that the client come alone for the consultation visit in order to ensure that he or she is not being pressured into sterilization by a spouse or significant other. Also, some doctors may require that the client undergo a psychological evaluation before such a procedure. This is insulting and implies heavily that anyone who does not want children is not of sound mind, as it is not common practice for anyone who declares that he or she wants to have children to be required to undergo counselling before doing so--even if he or she is clearly unsuited to being a parent for whatever reasons.

As a result of external pressures from those who cannot fathom how anyone could possibly not want to have children, several childfree social and support groups, both online and offline, have been created (such as World Childfree Association Incorporated and No Kidding!). Probably as a way of venting their frustration, members of these groups have evolved their own lexicon, some of which is listed here:

• breeder: someone who has reproduced but does not take care of his or her children properly. This usually means someone who has had several children without weighing out the responsibilities and sacrifices involved, and once he or she has discovered those responsibilities and sacrifices, chooses not to live up to them. This term is also used by some queer people to refer to heterosexuals, although it is not strictly accurate, as not all heterosexuals wish to reproduce, and a significant number of queer people do.
• PNB: "parent, not breeder" -- someone who takes care of his or her children properly. Also used is the acronym BNP, meaning the reverse.
• moo: a BNP female. Backronym for "mother obsessed with offspring" or "mother with obnoxious offspring." Also mombie.
• duh: a BNP male. Also dud or duhdie.
• sprog: a neutral term for a random child. While it is non-derogatory and even affectionate in UK English, non-childfree North Americans often find it offensive. Along the same lines, ankle biter is used neutrally in Australia, but North Americans also tend to see it as offensive.
• snotgoblin: one of many intentionally derogatory terms for a child, usually a bratty or otherwise ill-behaved one. Other terms include (but not exclusively): crotch dropping, yard ape, fuck trophy, carpet shark, flesh loaf.
• SMooV: a large vehicle, usually a minivan or a sports utility vehicle, that appears to be driven or owned by someone who uses it for the sole purpose of ferrying children around.
• babystalking: the act of a parent or caregiver of an infant following one who does not react to his/her child, usually while cooing at his/her baby or affecting an exaggeratedly cute manner with it, in order to elicit a reaction.
• baby rabies: the state of believing that one absolutely must have children as soon as possible, whatever the cost.
• placenta brain: most often used to describe a narrowminded point of view that espouses the necessity of making the world child-friendly and often carries with it a strong sense of entitlement for simply having reproduced.
• Breeder Bingo: briefly, a shorthand phrase meaning the event of someone trotting out a series of clichéd statements in response to a person's assertion that he or she is childfree.
• TMIJITW: a derisive synonym for parenting, this acronym stands for "the most important job in the world"; the term is used as a facetious echo of parents who attempt to elevate the importance of their occupation to unrealistic heights.
• breeder pleaser: a childfree person who tries to appease those who are offended by childfreedom, especially one who attempts to censor the speech and opinions of other childfree people so that the non-childfree are not offended. Many childfree people would say that a "breeder pleaser" is likely to agree with Breeder Bingo statements or to express the sentiment, "I love children; I just don't want any of my own." Use of this insult is somewhat analogous to a black person calling another black person an "Uncle Tom."
• waahmbulance: "a hypothetical emergency vehicle that can be called for when the self-esteem of a child or parent is tragically harmed by the terms above or the even more offensive word 'no.'" -- kevinpease from the LiveJournal childfree community.

As with any subgroups of society, the childfree lifestyle includes as many definitions of childfreedom as there are members, as well as heated debates that take place when one person's definition does not quite match with another's. In addition to this basic overview of what childfreedom entails, other good points of reference include the "childfree", "childfree_zone", and "cf_singles" communities on LiveJournal and the alt.support.childfree newsgroup; visiting relevant websites and reading books on childfreedom will provide a better-rounded picture of the concept for those more interested in it.